Mick
Life President
Tomorrow's referee is the rapidly balding Graham Horwood from Luton, in his 9th year as a League referee and refereeing his 13th Southend game.
His eight and a bit years of League service are either side of a two year gap when he was demoted for performance reasons. Even now some years after his return, for me, he falls in to the "lucky to still be there" category.
His last Southend match was also Adam Barrett's last match, the 4-0 Checkatrade debacle at Stevenage last season. A caution apiece, ours went to Thompson. Before that was a bit of a cardfest in the 2-1 home win over Oxford earlier last season. Nine cautions (Oxley, Inniss, Wordsworth, Mooney and O'Neil plus four of theirs)
His previous visit to Southend was for the 2015/16 victory over Blackpool where despite just one yellow card (to the visitors) he was unconvincing.
In the 2014/15 season there were three matches. Firstly, his visit to Roots Hall to preside over the start and end of our Cup run. That shocking Chester match saw a hefty number of yellows, 4 a piece. Ours went to Binnom-Williams, Sokolik, White and Timlin. Towards the end of that season he refereed our 1-0 home win over Tranmere, on their way out of the League. Yellow for Bolger and 3 of theirs. In between those matches he was in charge of our game at Wycombe, where we were very much second best. The sending off of Binnom-Williams was probably correct. Yellows went to O'Toole and Deegan and a couple of theirs.
His only other Southend match since his re-instatement was the pre-Christmas, Friday night game 2013/14 against Rochdale which finished 1-1. It was 1-1 on yellow cards too - Leonard got ours and ex-blue Lund, theirs. He did okay.
During his period of de-selection he appeared in Southend matches on a couple of occasions as an Assistant. Before that, his previous four visits to Roots Hall as a referee weren't too bad. The most recent was the final home game of 2008/9 against Cheltenham. The other three were Hereford in the same season and Rochdale in the cup and Bournemouth in the League the year before that. So, Chester apart, we have a very decent home record with this official. The only match of these with a significant number of cards was the Rochdale Cup game where they had 4 yellows to our one (Gower). Le Fondre scored for them; Bailey and Harrold for us.
Since those he refereed the 1-0 defeat at Aldershot 2010/11 when we shaded the yellows 3-2 (Prosser, Grant and the easily forgotton Craig Easton).
A referee who will never rise above the level of those making up the numbers, last season saw an above average 113 yellows and 6 reds from 31 matches. This season, 7 matches with 22 yellows and no reds.
Don't expect too much and you might not be disappointed.
Assistants will be Rob Smith from Letchworth Garden City and newly promoted Callum Walchester from Lowestoft. The latter performed a similar role in Forest Green Rovers' play-off win at Wembley last season. Marc Wilson from Cambridge will be doing the 4th official stuff.
His eight and a bit years of League service are either side of a two year gap when he was demoted for performance reasons. Even now some years after his return, for me, he falls in to the "lucky to still be there" category.
His last Southend match was also Adam Barrett's last match, the 4-0 Checkatrade debacle at Stevenage last season. A caution apiece, ours went to Thompson. Before that was a bit of a cardfest in the 2-1 home win over Oxford earlier last season. Nine cautions (Oxley, Inniss, Wordsworth, Mooney and O'Neil plus four of theirs)
His previous visit to Southend was for the 2015/16 victory over Blackpool where despite just one yellow card (to the visitors) he was unconvincing.
In the 2014/15 season there were three matches. Firstly, his visit to Roots Hall to preside over the start and end of our Cup run. That shocking Chester match saw a hefty number of yellows, 4 a piece. Ours went to Binnom-Williams, Sokolik, White and Timlin. Towards the end of that season he refereed our 1-0 home win over Tranmere, on their way out of the League. Yellow for Bolger and 3 of theirs. In between those matches he was in charge of our game at Wycombe, where we were very much second best. The sending off of Binnom-Williams was probably correct. Yellows went to O'Toole and Deegan and a couple of theirs.
His only other Southend match since his re-instatement was the pre-Christmas, Friday night game 2013/14 against Rochdale which finished 1-1. It was 1-1 on yellow cards too - Leonard got ours and ex-blue Lund, theirs. He did okay.
During his period of de-selection he appeared in Southend matches on a couple of occasions as an Assistant. Before that, his previous four visits to Roots Hall as a referee weren't too bad. The most recent was the final home game of 2008/9 against Cheltenham. The other three were Hereford in the same season and Rochdale in the cup and Bournemouth in the League the year before that. So, Chester apart, we have a very decent home record with this official. The only match of these with a significant number of cards was the Rochdale Cup game where they had 4 yellows to our one (Gower). Le Fondre scored for them; Bailey and Harrold for us.
Since those he refereed the 1-0 defeat at Aldershot 2010/11 when we shaded the yellows 3-2 (Prosser, Grant and the easily forgotton Craig Easton).
A referee who will never rise above the level of those making up the numbers, last season saw an above average 113 yellows and 6 reds from 31 matches. This season, 7 matches with 22 yellows and no reds.
Don't expect too much and you might not be disappointed.
Assistants will be Rob Smith from Letchworth Garden City and newly promoted Callum Walchester from Lowestoft. The latter performed a similar role in Forest Green Rovers' play-off win at Wembley last season. Marc Wilson from Cambridge will be doing the 4th official stuff.
